Energy Effects of Urban Forests in Sacramento, CA

Summary

The future energy impacts of shade trees planted through a Sacramento utility sponsored program were evaluated. Detailed information on building and tree characteristics were collected for 254 residential properties and used to model hourly shading for each building. After factoring in increased heating costs from tree shade in winter, a total annual savings of $14 per tree was estimated. Data were coupled with information from a previous study of existing shade trees and potential residential tree planting sites to calculate impacts of Sacramento County.s entire urban forest on energy use for space conditioning. This is one of the first studies to scale-up data from individual properties and derive regional estimates.